While Winder’s mayor and council continue to debate the price and the politics of having the city’s TV crew tape council meetings for rebroadcast on WCTV, an amateur videographer has stepped in to do the job himself.

Spurred to political action by ongoing controversies as well as a negative encounter with a Winder police officer in late July, Jim Cooley has notified city officials that he wants to be informed of all upcoming council meetings so that he can videotape them.

Earlier this month, Cooley posted on www.youtube.com a 9-minute segment of the council’s Aug. 3 meeting in which Mayor Chip Thompson breaks a tie vote to set a salary range of $87,187-$132,666 for the next city administrator.

Cooley’s video is entitled “Winder, Georgia: Could it become the next Bell, California?” — a reference to the small city where former top officials are under investigation for having salaries grossly out of line with the community’s average income.

Though Winder’s pay scale is far below the $787,637 paid to Bell’s former top administrator, the World News Network web site (www.wn.com) picked up Cooley’s video and lumped it in with others related to the “Bell California Controversy over Salaries of City Officials.”

So there, in an index of still-frames photos linked to separate videos is Winder city councilman Bob Dixon raising both hands in disbelief over being outmaneuvered on the salary issue by the mayor and his allies, who stole that political football before the former coach could even get his hands on it.

Cooley said the political one upsmanship, now available for the entire world to view online, reminds him of the kind of politics he once observed in Chicago, where he resided for 30 years.

“I watched that whole video over and over,” Cooley said. “It certainly did seem like some underhanded stuff was going on, that there was some dirty crap going on there. I thought I was in Chicago.”

For more on this story, see the August 18 edition of the Barrow Journal or click hereto read the full story online when you subscribe to our new e-edition.

I'd like to know more about Jim's negative encounter with a Winder police officer. Might there be a pattern of misbehavior on the part of Winder's finest given the recent issues regarding allegedly illegal searches?

I can't explain what was on the officer's mind, but what I can tell you is that in the Internal Affairs investigation the officer did admit everything in my statement was true. I can also tell you that I have been assured that the Winder Police are changing some policies based on this incident and let me also just say that I have confidence in the Winder Police Department; from what I've seen they really do a great job and I never fault the whole bushel for what one apple happens to do. But we also don't want it to become an epidemic.

Thanks Mr. Cooley. About time somebody keeps an eye on Winder (government). With all the publicity the county gets, seems like Winder plays second fiddle in the news. But you can bet Winder government officials, with the exception of only a couple of councilmen, are just as bad or worse than the the county. Might not effect as many employees or citizens, but is just as traumatic and devious.

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